The present invention relates to an agricultural tillage system which includes a novel plow point tillage system which is capable of a complete working and plowing of unplowed ground in a single pass.
Perhaps the most commonly used tool for plowing is the conventional moldboard plow. Usually the plow bottom is set at a particular depth of plowing, for example, eight or ten inches, but as deep as twelve or fourteen inches in some cases. These plows are typically mounted to a main beam which is inclined relative to the direction of travel of a tractor so that each moldboard is set to take a swath or strip of ground, cut it, and roll the ground over into a furrow formed by the next forward moldboard. The leading moldboard turns its strip of ground over into a furrow formed on a previous pass of the plow system.
When a moldboard plow is used repeatedly to plow ground at the same depth, a layer of highly compacted soil is formed just beneath that depth. This is called the plow "sole", and it has the disadvantages that, due to its compactness, roots of plants have difficulty in penetrating it, and water has a tendency to drain over the plow sole rather than being absorbed by the soil. Further, a moldboard plow displaces to one side all of the soil that is tilled. Eventually, the ground must be plowed in the opposite direction, and even when this occurs, a deep side ridge normally is left at the end swath.
One advantage of the moldboard plow, not found in devices which work a more shallow depth is that they bring up deep soil and this is believed to be effective in reducing herbicide built up near the surface.
A commonly used plow point is made from a bar of steel approximately four inches wide that is curved to bolt in front of a chisel plow shank. It is twisted on a helix and right and left hand units are used. Due to the wide curved surface, the point tends to bulldoze the soil and power requirements become high at deeper depths. Another common point is an approximate two inch wide point mounted to a thick plate shank. These units are generally operated at deeper depths, however, in wet conditions, they tend to simply cut a path.